Rising Women’s Voices

A few weeks ago I interviewed Cristina Quisbert of the Voces Bolivianas project in El Alto, Bolivia. She made the point that in Bolivia – and across much of the world – women often have less access to new technologies than their male counterparts. Furthermore, once women are empowered to use new communications technologies such as blogs and online video, they are often subject to harassment in the form of comments and unsolicited, lewd emails. At Rising Voices we don’t only want to help teach under-represented communities how to make themselves heard; we also want them to feel safe and comfortable expressing themselves.

Allyson Kapin – along with an impressive advisory committee – is planning a telesummit for women in technology this coming March. As the Women Who Tech website observes, “Some of the most gifted folks in technology are women yet they are rarely quoted as experts by the mainstream media and blogs. Furthermore women are significantly underrepresented on panels at major technology conferences.” The free online conference aims to recognize the achievements of women in technology, break down barriers, and mobilize a network.

BlogHer

BlogHer is probably the world’s largest network of female bloggers. The community is overwhelmingly based in the United States, but that can always be changed with more global participation. There is a “world section“ and also editors for Latin America and Asia.

African Women Blogs is a great example of how a simple aggregator can help cultivate a sense of community. The website pulls together some of the latest blog posts from African women bloggers and puts them all in one spot. If you’re an African women blogger yourself and would like to be included, you can register an account and submit your blog here.

LinuxChix Mini-Conference

LinuxChix is a community for women who like linux and free software, and for women and men who want to support women in computing. From January 28th to February 2nd they will be organizing the second annual LinuxChix women’s mini-conference at the University of Melbourne in Australia. The ‘mini-conf’, featuring women speaking about technical and social aspects of their involvement in Free Software, will run parallel to the annual Australian Linux Conference. More details about the objectives of the conference can be found on their FAQ page.